Another day, another outraged leftist who can't believe that President Donald Trump would dare to do what it takes to stop violent protesters, even if it means using the military to assist overwhelmed police.

When it came to the press's notice that DHS head Kristi Noem asked Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth in a letter to get the military to arrest protesters and detain them until federal law enforcement could take custody, the San Francisco Chronicle couldn't get its leftist experts on the record fast enough.

Noem cited Title 18 as the reasoning behind the request, noting that foreign terrorist organizations were behind the violence directed at ICE agents in Los Angeles.

She asked the military to "support to our law enforcement officers and agents across Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Customs and Border Protection (CBP), and Federal Protective Services (FPS), as they defend against invasive, violent, insurrectionist mobs that seek to protect invaders and military aged males belonging to identified foreign terrorist organizations, and who seek to prevent the deportation of criminal aliens."

Trying to "instill fear"

So far, 700 Marines have been deployed to Los Angeles, but they are only being used to protect federal assets. They are not authorized to arrest anyone, and have not become active at the site of the riots so far.

That hasn't stopped the left from shouting to anyone who will listen that Trump is making the U.S. into a dictatorship.

Emeritus professor at Vermont Law and Graduate School Stephen Dycus said the actions being proposed along with the federalization of the National Guard and the deployment of Marines "can be seen as using the military, or at a minimum using that threat, to instill fear in the American people and discourage the kinds of protests that are going on in Los Angeles."

"So this could be viewed as a preparation for invoking the Insurrection Act, or it could be viewed as part of a larger effort to frighten people who otherwise would exercise their First Amendment guarantee of free speech and protest," he added.

So in other words, he's saying violence is covered under free speech, and if Trump and his officials stop it, they are threatening free speech. This is utterly nonsensical.

California state Sen. Scott Wiener (D) chimed in, "This isn't what happens in a democracy, this is what happens in a dictatorship."

Not the first time

But as recently as 1992, the same thing happened in Los Angeles when rioters violently protested the acquittal of four Los Angeles Police Department officers who were caught on film beating black suspect Rodney King.

In fact, at that time the Insurrection Act was invoked, and that hasn't even happened yet in the present day.

There are provisions for using the military when local law enforcement can't or won't keep order.

If Mayor Karen Bass and Governor Gavin Newsom are going to tacitly encourage the violence, what choice do Trump and his officials really have?